Chimes at Midnight: An October Daye Novel (8 page)

“So if Mom didn’t mess with the Queen’s blood, there’s honestly no way she could be Gilad’s daughter.” The Queen of the Mists, my old nemesis, the woman who once tried to have me executed for murder . . . she wasn’t even rightfully our ruler?

If I was distressed, Quentin was downright distraught. “That’s not right,” he said. “She should never have been allowed to do that. The High King—”

“They never called for the High King, and he was busy elsewhere when this happened.” Patrick shrugged. “North America is large, Quentin. It’s more than one man, even a man like High King Sollys, can oversee. Sometimes he has to take the Kingdoms at their word. When the Mists said all was well here, he spent his attention where it seemed more needed.”

For a moment, Quentin looked like he was going to protest. Then he sighed, sagging, and said, “I don’t like politics.”

“Then you are a very wise boy,” said Tybalt.

“No one likes politics,” said Dianda. “On the plus side, it gives me a lot of excuses to shout at people. I like that part.”

“Mom’s great at shouting,” said Dean.

“Hang on,” I said, raising my hand in a futile signal for quiet. I was still reeling from the idea that the Queen of the Mists wasn’t our rightful ruler. If I didn’t focus on something, I was going to scream. “How can you all be so
calm
about this?”

“Because we’ve had a long time to deal with the knowledge,” said Dianda. “King Gilad was a good ruler, and she has done her best to undermine his legacy at every turn. He believed in maintaining strong ties with the Undersea; she cut them as soon as she could. He believed changelings had a place in fae society, that we owed them that much, since we were their parents and originals. She did her best to banish changelings from the Courts. She even took us to war against the Kingdom of Silences because they dared to protest the way the changelings here were being treated. I’m so sorry she’s banished you. You are always welcome in the Undersea.”

There was a moment of silence as we all considered Dianda’s words. Finally, I sighed. “Great. I guess I know what we’re going to be doing this week.”

“What’s that?” asked Quentin.

I tried to smile. It came out feeling more like a grimace. Maybe that was a better reflection of my feelings. “We’re going to overthrow the Queen.”

W
E EXCUSED OURSELVES AFTER THAT. Once it had fully sunk in that the woman who had banished me wasn’t the legitimate ruler of the Mists, there was really nowhere else for the conversation to go. Dean needed some time with his parents. We needed to go home and reassure May and Jazz that we hadn’t been arrested, deported, or worse.

It was another quiet drive. We were nearly back to the house before Quentin asked, “Toby? Are we really going to overthrow the Queen of the Mists?”

Tybalt looked at me out of the corner of his eye, clearly interested in my answer. I took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before letting it out and nodding. “I don’t know. But I’m going to try.”

“Who would you put on the throne?” asked Tybalt mildly.

“See, there’s the stumper. She has no kids, and even if she did, they wouldn’t have a legitimate claim, since
she
doesn’t have a legitimate claim. She was able to take the throne because there was no known heir. The Windermere line died with King Gilad. I guess that means she’d be as valid a Queen as anyone, if she could get the High King to confirm her as the start of a new royal line, but she’s been on the throne so long . . .”

“If she knew she wasn’t King Gilad’s heir, and she took the throne anyway, that’s treason,” said Quentin. “We could tell the High King now.”

“If we can prove she wasn’t Gilad’s heir, sure,” I said, feeling even more daunted by the scope of this potentially treasonous notion. In the mortal world, contesting someone’s claim to a throne after a century had passed might have seemed excessive. In Faerie, it was likely to be filed under “guess it’s Tuesday.” “But we need something more concrete than the word of the changeling she’s just banished if we want the High King to take this seriously. If we make a false accusation, we won’t live to make a true one.”

“So we find proof,” said Quentin.

“I do enjoy a challenge,” said Tybalt.

We were quiet for the rest of the drive home. Cagney and Lacey—my half-Siamese cats—were sitting in the kitchen window when we pulled into the driveway. They looked at us disapprovingly as we got out of the car. “You’d think dating a King of Cats would get them to cut me a little slack,” I said.

Quentin snorted. “Are you kidding? The cats probably think you’re a social climber.”

“Something like that,” said Tybalt.

“I hate you both,” I said, walking to the back door. I unlocked it, pushing it open and calling, “It’s us. Where is everybody?”

“We’re in the dining room!” May called back.

We found them sitting at the dining room table. May was cutting pictures out of a magazine. Jazz was armed with a hot glue gun, a plaster unicorn head, and a box of artificial gems in various colors and sizes. I stopped in the doorway. “Do I want to know?”

“It helps us stay calm,” said Jazz, hot gluing a bright purple teardrop to the unicorn’s cheek.

“How did it go?” asked May.

“The Luidaeg told me to talk to people who’d known King Gilad before he died,” I said. “So we went to Goldengreen to talk to the Lordens.”

“And?” prompted May.

“Dianda and Patrick were happy to talk to us about King Gilad,” I said. “The trouble is, that just made things worse.”

May frowned. “How could they make things worse than ‘we have a goblin fruit problem and I’ve been banished from the Kingdom’? Is the Undersea being attacked by giant squid?”

“I think the giant squid thing is pretty much normal for them, but no. According to Dianda, the Queen of the Mists isn’t King Gilad Windermere’s daughter. Which means she’s not legitimately our Queen; she’s been holding a throne that wasn’t hers for all these years, and no one did anything about it.”

“Which goes a long way toward explaining her policies regarding the Undersea,” noted Tybalt. “Most of the nobility on land was behind her, or was mysteriously absent. I doubt our sea-going cousins would have been so accommodating.”

Jazz yelped. I turned. She was sucking the side of her thumb. “Sorry,” she said, voice muffled by her hand. “I got distracted listening to you and hot glued myself to my unicorn.”

“Right. See, this is why I don’t think anyone in this house should be allowed to use power tools.” I shook my head. “Anyway, now we need to figure out how to prove that Dianda is right about the Queen. And we have to do it all in three days, since otherwise I’m going to be committing treason by correspondence course.”

“We all are,” said May. I blinked at her. She laughed, a little wearily. “Do you honestly think Jazz and I will be staying if you go? Oh, and Quentin? He may be fostered to Shadowed Hills, but he’s your squire. He goes where you do, unless you decide to leave him behind.”

“Which you’re not going to do,” said Quentin quickly.

“I have a Court to tend to,” said Tybalt. My heart sank a little, even though I had already known that would be his answer. Then, to my surprise, he continued, “It will take me some time to hand my duties off to Raj. When that is done, I will find you.”

I turned to stare at him. “What . . . ?”

“I am a cat, October. I have a sense of duty, because I am also a man, but no cat can be held down by duty forever. Eventually, we must go where we wish to be, not where we are told.” Tybalt smiled slightly at the expression on my face. “A simple banishment is not enough to see you quit of me, little fish.”

“Is it just me, or is getting hot in here?” asked May, causing Jazz to break into a peal of laughter. I wrinkled my nose at her, but I was secretly relieved. I would have either thrown myself at him or blushed myself to death in a few more seconds, and neither of those was a great option.

“You are all evil.” I slicked the wisps of hair that had escaped their net of ribbons back from my face with both hands, releasing the illusion that had been making me look human in the same gesture. “Okay. We have three problems. If the Queen of the Mists isn’t supposed to be in charge, who is? How do we find them? And how do we depose a sitting monarch who has her very own private army?”

“Remember when our biggest problem was ‘who turned the laundry pink’?” asked May. Then she sighed. “Yeah. Me neither.”

“Your guess is as good as mine on all of these topics,” said Tybalt. “Even in my misspent youth, I never attempted to depose a monarch of the Divided Courts. Only my father, and I doubt our means of succession would hold in the Courts of Oberon.”

“Probably not, but . . .” I paused. “Maybe we don’t need to guess about any of this.”

“What?” said May.

“What?” echoed Jazz and Quentin.

“Li Qin has a Library card.” I dug my phone out of my jacket pocket. “Maybe she can get me a temporary pass or something.”

Tybalt blinked. “That is a surprisingly thoughtful, nonviolent solution.”

I stuck my tongue out at him as I scrolled through my contact list, finally locating the entry for Li Qin Zhou, current acting regent of Dreamer’s Glass. She was the widow of Countess January O’Leary of Tamed Lightning, and the adoptive mother of Countess April O’Leary, also of Tamed Lightning. She was also the only person I knew who might be able to get me into the local Library.

The phone rang twice before Li Qin picked up, with a cheerful, “October! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you today. Has Treasa turned up?”

“Not as such, no.” Duchess Treasa Riordan was technically the regent of Dreamer’s Glass. It was a real pity she’d gone and gotten herself stranded in Annwn, leaving Li Qin to mind her fiefdom. And by “real pity,” I mean “too bad she didn’t do it sooner.” “I need to ask for a favor.”

“Anything. I owe you.”

“Yeah, you do, but you might want to hear what I need before you agree to it. Can you get me a Library pass?”

There was a pause before Li Qin asked, “May I know why you need one?”

“Stuff. Important stuff. I’m not going to burn the place down or anything, I just need to look a few things up, and the Library seems like the best starting point.”

There was a longer pause. Then Li Qin said, “I know when you’re not telling me everything.”

“Fine. The Queen just exiled me from the Kingdom. I have three days to get out. I’m sure you’ll hear about it in short order, since neither Dreamer’s Glass nor Tamed Lightning were on the list of places it’s okay for me to go and hide. I need to get into the Library to find out whether there’s anything I can do to keep myself here.”

“Why didn’t you say so in the first place? The Librarian owes me a few favors, and I suppose it’s time I collect. I just . . . have you ever
used
a Library before?”

“Not in the fae sense,” I said.

“All right. I’ll see what I can do. If I can get her to agree, I’ll call you.”

“Okay. That’s cool. I appreciate it.”

Li Qin laughed. “Of all the things I expected you to ask me for, Toby, a Library pass was not high on the list.”

“I’m full of surprises. Open roads, Li.”

“Kind fires,” she responded, and hung up.

I turned back toward the others. “Li Qin’s going to see if she can get us into the Library.”

“You didn’t say ‘us,’” said Tybalt, voice suddenly sharp. “You just said you needed a pass.”

“Oh, Maeve’s teeth. I’ll explain when she calls me back, okay?”

Tybalt nodded. He didn’t look completely mollified. I’d worry about that later.

“I still can’t believe the Queen is doing this,” said Quentin.

I wanted to hug him and say that it was all going to be okay. I wasn’t going to do that, though. I try not to lie to my friends. “Why not?” I asked. “She doesn’t like me. The murder trial should have tipped you off about that, even if nothing else did. I gave her an excuse, and she took it.”

“Not a good excuse,” said Tybalt.

“It didn’t have to be.” I plucked at the gray silk fabric of my dress. “I’m going to go upstairs and change. Then we’re going to call Sylvester, and—”

My phone rang. Or rather, my phone chirped like a techno remix of a cricket. I pulled it out of my pocket, frowning at the display, which indicated that Li Qin was calling. Motioning for the others to hang on, I raised it to my ear. “Li.
Please
tell me you have good news.”

“I got you a Library pass,” said Li Qin.

“Oh, thank Oberon.” I flashed a thumbs-up at the others. “So how does this Library pass thing work? Do I need to come to San Jose and pick up a note or something?”

“No note—the Librarian is expecting you. I’ll text you the Library’s current physical address. It moves around more than most knowes, because of the way it’s anchored.” Li Qin sounded concerned. “Do you want me to read your luck for you?”

“No!” I said, more loudly than I intended. Tybalt and Quentin both took a step forward. I waved them back and repeated, more quietly, “No. No luck. Please.” Li Qin was a Shyi Shuai. Her race specialized in manipulating luck. The trouble was, for every action, there was an equal and opposite reaction. The last time I’d allowed her to play around with my luck, I’d wound up getting disemboweled. Twice. Not an experience I was in a hurry to have again.

“I understand,” said Li Qin. “Let me know if you change your mind?”

“I will. Look, this Library pass, is it only good for me? Because I’m not sure I want to be running around without some sort of backup just now.” More, I wasn’t sure my backup would let me get away with it if I tried.

“I made sure you could bring an escort.” Li Qin’s concern melted into amusement. “I couldn’t picture you going out alone. The Librarian is nice enough, and she understood why you might not want to come without friends. Her name is Magdaleana. Play nicely with her.”

Not that long ago, I considered myself a loner. It was a little odd to realize that I’d moved so far past those days that people I’d met since then didn’t even consider it an option. “I really appreciate this, Li,” I said, skirting dangerously close to thanking her.

“I’m gearing up to ask you for a favor to be named later. I’m just adding to my leverage here.” Her tone was light, but there was an element of seriousness there.

That was something to worry about later. “I still appreciate it. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Please do. Now get yourself un-banished before time runs out. This Kingdom would be awfully dull without you.” Li Qin hung up.

“She got me the pass,” I said, lowering my phone. “And yes, you can come with me, since she didn’t think I’d want to go alone.”

“Both of us?” asked Quentin hopefully.

Tybalt didn’t ask. He just raised an eyebrow.

Li Qin said “friends” when I asked her about bringing an escort . . . “Yes,” I said firmly. My phone buzzed again as Li texted me. I checked the display. “Lucky us: we’re staying in the city. The place is just a few miles from here.”

“I don’t think you should change your clothes,” said May.

I turned, blinking, to see her standing in the kitchen doorway with Jazz. “What?”

“Keep the dress. Most Librarians don’t get out much. Whoever runs the local branch is probably a little bit behind the times. They’ll find formality appropriate and respectful.” May shrugged. “Just a suggestion.”

Sometimes it was easy to forget that my silly, flamboyant Fetch had started her existence as one of the night-haunts. They met all the Librarians, eventually. “Okay,” I said. “As long as I can keep my jacket. But I don’t think we can all go.”